Qantas Socceroo Jacob Burns says he’ll be doing everything in his power to bring finals football back to Perth after being officially unveiled as the Glory’s captain for this season.
After several weeks of speculation on who would lead the club, Burns was finally named at the Glory’s jumper presentation on Tuesday night.
Despite having only arrived in Perth in June after a stint at Romanian club Unirea Urziceni, Burns was endorsed by coach Dave Mitchell, the Australian national saying he intended to lead the former NSL powerhouse into the Hyundai A-League finals for the first time.
“There’s a great group of lads, lots of talent in the squad and it’s great to be back in Australia and leading us into the finals,” Burns said.
“We’ve got a great mix. I think we’ve got a lot of youth, a lot of foreigners that have come in and it’s a great history.”
“This club, when I used to come here 10 years ago, they would win the league every year.”
“So it’s my job to get the boys firing, to be a leader on the pitch and to get the crowds back here and to make finals football, so I’ll be doing everything in my power to do that,” he said.
Burns is one of three Qantas Socceroos signed by the Glory as part of a sensational pre-season recruiting drive by coach Dave Mitchell that’s also netted Mile Sterjovski (Derby County) and Chris Coyne (Colchester United) from the national team.
Sterjovski’s Derby team-mate and former Blackburn captain Andy Todd has also been signed by the Glory and, along with Coyne, was one of the player’s considered for the captaincy after some quality performances in Perth’s pre-season fixtures.
Former Energie Cottbus striker Branko Jelic and goalkeeper Aleks Vrteski make up the remainder of Mitchell’s overseas signings, which have been bank rolled by some heavy investment from owner Tony Sage.
The Glory have a difficult opening to their season this year as they face away trips to Adelaide and Wellington in the first two rounds.
This is on the back of a bad month for injuries and illness which has left club veteran Jamie Harnwell (hamstring) likely to miss the first three matches, with fitness clouds hanging over Todd (back), Wayne Srhoj (hamstring), Scott Bulloch (Achilles), Andrija Jukic (calf) and Burns, whose been battling hamstring soreness.
